Serendipity
by Lennox13
Summary: A bomb, a storm, and Jack-Jack's volatile powers combine with an unexpected encounter as result. After finding themselves stranded in a strange new world, the Parr siblings have to adapt and find each other once more. But what is more important: saving themselves and returning home, or helping another earth in the middle of a crisis?
1. Chapter 1

As much as she loved her brothers, babysitting was not a job Violet happily volunteered for. Or volunteered for at all, to be exact, but somehow, on a rainy summer's day, she was stuck having to watch over Dash and Jack-Jack whilst her parents helped evacuate a city.

What frustrated her beyond belief was not really the babysitting since Dash entertained himself playing computer games and Jack-Jack quite contentedly read in a corner, but the fact that she could help. At seventeen and fourteen respectively, Violet and Dash both were more than old enough to help evacuate a city about to be hit by a tsunami.

Dash especially, Violet begrudgingly admitted to herself as she thrummed her fingers over the counter. Jack-Jack lifted his head at the sound, lifted an eyebrow at his sister, and returned to his book.

For a nine-year-old, the youngest Parr acted extremely mature, but Violet thought it only made sense since his powers were the most volatile. He had to learn at a very young age that life was not just a game, that people got hurt and that he was incredibly dangerous. Edna and some other research scientist she knew speculated that during puberty he will either lose most of his abilities or settle on a select few.

In the meantime, Jack-Jack had become more and more reluctant in general to use his powers after nearly getting himself and a civilian stuck inside a wall whilst trying to phase through it. Vi's bedroom was next to Jack-Jack's, and for weeks after the incident she found herself being woken up by her own paranoia or her baby brother's whimpers. Not fun.

Speaking of not fun, the squiggles of advanced Calculus glared up at her from the homework she was supposed to be doing. Algebra she liked, algebra she could do, but calculus… she just found it hard to visualise. The sun had long since set, the rain kept pouring, the skies kept darkening and so did her mood.

"Snacks?" Jack-Jack's voice echoed across the room.

When Violet's eyes darted to his face once more, she found the lopsided grin she could hear in his voice. "Gosh, yes," she smiled gratefully and got up to rifle through the cupboards and fridge.

Absentmindedly, she hummed her dad's theme song as she cut up carrots and cucumber to go with the half a tub of garlic hummus she found in the fridge. She heard a shuffle behind her but paid it no mind. In her family, a presence in the kitchen meant Dash.

As a speedster, his metabolism was something to be envied. He ate enough to feed the entire family twice over.

"There's still some of your granola clusters in the drawer if you want," she offered and then hissed when she accidentally sliced her finger. "Ouch, dammit!" However, her throbbing finger was quickly forgotten at the feel of something cold and hard pressing at the back of her neck.

"You okay?" Jack-Jack called from the living room.

"Tell him you're fine," a cold voice growled. "Or one of my friends detonates the lovely little sparkler we've already rigged in the other room. Bye-bye, brothers." He chuckled at his own success at alliteration. With a bang and a groan, the lights went out and the house went silent. The power had been cut.

Outwardly, there was not a hair out of place or a bead of sweat in sight. Violet looked calm, but inside she was a seething mass of energy. How? What? When? How did they sneak in without notice? The Parr house had only the best security money could buy, and surely three semi-trained supers would have noticed a freakin' bomb?! And a bomb meant something more malicious than your average house-robbery. Did the burglars know the Parrs were supers?

"Super-duper, Dash, no worries!" She hoped her brothers would catch the smattering of clues in the response.

As if in answer to her emotions, the sky outside rumbled and the rain poured down harder. Ah. Maybe that's why the burglars weren't noticed and were able to sneak in. The lightning has been messing with the power grid and the thunder masked their noise. Smart, definitely. And either super or extremely patient, having to wait for a storm.

The constant stream of thoughts analysing and sifting through and processing information was a distant hum at the back of her mind. "What do you want?" she whispered. Having already put up a forcefield hugging the shape of her body, Violet was not at all worried about the gun in her captor's hands. But she did not know what other toys he had, who he was or how many friends he brought along.

"Not much. Just revenge," he said nonchalantly. "With parents like yours, you couldn't really believe that their enemies wouldn't come knocking sooner or later."

"Why, good evening, fine sir! Can I interest you in a Band-Aid?" Dash sounded smug, on the verge of laughter, a tactic that never failed to get the blood boiling when directed at sisters and villains alike.

"Shit!" The man swung around and started firing. His weapon, automatic, still was no match for a speedster.

Faster than she could blink, Dash had already whooshed passed and whisked her to the living room.

"They're loose!" She heard from the kitchen but ignored it in favour of checking that both her brothers were whole.

Dash, still half a head shorter than her, stood by her side, vibrating with excitement. Jack-Jack stood next to the window, so she could only just see his shadow and the faint gleam that told her he was in his metallic form.

"Who are these guys?" Dash gushed, following her as she rushed to Jack-Jack's side. "I hit the panic button, counted three others. Should I go for help? Check the perimeter? They're between us and the panic room."

Her mind whirled with the barrage of information he spouted at her. "Apparently there's a bomb," was all she could think to say to him but it seemed to shut him up satisfactorily.

With a gush of air, he was off again without having been told, searching for the bomb and likely checking the perimeter as well. The burglars, although Violet doubted that was all they were, would likely feel the breeze but they would still be unable to stop him. If Dash could find the bomb, he could probably disarm it as well, having trained with Lucius and Dad to do just that.

Violet placed her hand gently on Jack-Jack's wrist. She knew he was tough and mature and whatever, but he was still her baby brother. His pulse fluttered against her fingertips like a caged hummingbird, his metallic skin flickering from cold to hot as he struggled to maintain the form. His powers had been a bit glitchy over the past month or so. "Hey, everything's okay." He searched her face and she tried to smile. "Do you think you could portal us to the panic room?"

Jack-Jack cringed and suddenly flickered in and out of sight, taking his sister with him. His invisibility was more like a chameleon than whatever it was that Violet did, but she'd trained with him so often that her brain just followed him automatically. It made her dizzy.

"I don't know, Vi." He was scared. He'd only been on rescue missions before and she didn't blame him.

Couldn't blame him.

Anger, repressed for the past couple of years, bubbled to the surface once more. As much as she loved her powers, helping people, feeling special, she hated them too for what they made her parents and brothers suffer on a daily basis.

She breathed deeply and swallowed it all down once more, a furious fire heating her belly and making her even more determined to get them out of this without a scratch. "Try?" she prompted with a reassuring squeeze and he nodded.

Dash reappeared by her side. She glanced at him and started. His eyes were wide with shock; he was panting. Panting! What on earth could elicit such a reaction? Her own heartbeat sped up.

"The bomb… it… it's…" Dash looked lost and panicked. "I don't know where they got it, but it's going to take out the entire house. I don't even know if the fancy walls will hold. And I can't disarm it. I've never seen anything like it." He gasped for breath. "The house is in lockdown. I can't get out. There's five in the house but they've got fancy suits and equipment. And the one guy! Half a face, Vi!" Another gasp. "Vi, who are these guys?"

How the heck should she know? But she had to breathe and remain calm. Her brothers counted on her. "Well, they're just going to blow themselves up then. The walls will hold and we'll be all cosy in the panic room. Right?" She nudged Jack-Jack. He nodded reluctantly and held out his other hand, the one that Violet wasn't clutching in an ever-tightening grip.

A muscle above Dash's eye twitched but he took his brother's hand. As Jack-Jack closed his eyes to concentrate, Dash shot his sister a doubtful look and she smiled reassuringly, because that's what big sisters do.

The violet shimmer of her force field expanded to include her siblings and she tried to prepare herself for the bellybutton-tugging, tummy-twisting feeling of being sucked through another dimension and spat out somewhere else.

Before it could happen though, a massive impact hit her force field. She nearly lost focus from the shock of it, but only tugged it in closer and reinforced it thrice over.

Four blobs of shadow filtered into her line of sight. One, a woman with dark hair piled on top of her head, carried a still smoking contraption over one shoulder. They wore weird costumes, shimmery in the arcs of lightning that suddenly lit the room.

"-you! A force field? Don't make me laugh!" The drone of thunder had cut off most of his initial speech. Not that Violet got a chance to negotiate or stall, because suddenly the fifth member of the troupe came into view. Half of his body was a melted mess like hot wax dripping down a candle. He seemed proud of his scars since his suit was cut in such a way as to show the maximum amount of skin. His eyes were completely mad, darting around the room as if they struggled to fix upon something for more than a few seconds. He pressed a button on his wrist and with a hiss, a thin film of shimmery liquid crept across his skin.

Violet could only watch the scenario unfold. If the bomb was as powerful as Dash though, she wasn't sure her shield would hold. She was certainly stronger than ever before, but the blast would likely leave her unconscious or extremely weak and her brothers on their own. But she had to have faith that Jack-Jack could get them out. Dash was both cursing and begging at Jack-Jack to hurry up, and Violet hated the desperateness of the situation. And how powerless she felt.

The melted man grinned suddenly, completely covered by the shimmery film. For a few seconds his gaze alighted on her own and such unimaginable hate burned there. "Detonate," he ordered and licked his lips, relishing the order. A henchwoman to his left clicked her fingers.

"Fuck!" Dash yelled, his hair standing up wildly due to the static electricity in the air. "Now, Useless, now!" Jack-Jack shouted back, a wordless yell of frustration, anger and pent-up self-loathing. His eyes glowed red, blue, then white. Violet had only a second to think of how much she loved them and to gather them closer within her shield.

A lance of white-hot energy traced around the room, spitting sparks in random directions. Thunder boomed and her world imploded into shards of pain.

* * *

**Review? Yay, nay? Speculations, continuations, ideas, suggestions - all are welcome. I encourage constructive criticism and promise to take it to heart.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the review! I write if others seem interested to read, so this is for you guys who've responded. I know the first chap was a real tease because it gave nothing away, but here you go: the real thing.**

**This fic will take place before and during the events of Age of Ultron. I want the two siblings to meet the other two (hehe), but I swear this isn't going to be one of those 'write out the movie with new inserted character'. Oh well, thanks for reading!**

* * *

Every nerve screamed, creating a cacophony of sound that echoed through Violet's head. Her eyes felt heavy, her body felt lame, and her brain felt completely empty. It was a struggle to open her eyes – if only she could remember how to do just that.

Heat from above beat down upon her and through her eyelids which seemed to be stapled together, she could almost see the blazing inferno of the sun.

Sun?

She couldn't quite remember what happened but something about lying in the open sun didn't add up. Violet focused on moving her toes and fingers, groaning triumphantly when they wiggled.

_Don't think about it; just do it! _She heaved her eyes open and blinked against the glare of the sun. The bright ball of light sat high in the sky and she estimated the time to be early in the afternoon for the sun to still be blazing as hotly.

A gasp found her sitting upright. In a field. A farm? Where was she? She held up a hand to create some shade and peered around her.

Golden and green fields surrounded her on all sides. A definite fear of heatstroke and dehydration tickled at the back of her mind, and she swallowed down nauseating panic.

Where on earth was she?!

She craned her neck around, stiffly shuffling her joints to check behind her. If she squinted just right… A mirage? A barn? The image flickered. The likelihood of the vision being a heat-induced hallucination increased by the minute, but Violet could literally feel herself shrivelling up more and more as time ticked by. She didn't really have much of a choice either way. Field, field, field, or possibly civilisation? An easy choice that proved easier said than done as she tried to push herself upright.

One foot in front of the other, she chanted to herself. Her feet were bare and the scraps of clothing that hung from her thin frame shouldn't ever be qualified as clothing. But besides a few birds and the endless drone of insects, nobody was around to gawk at her.

Anyway, Violet had more serious things to worry about, such as how incredibly far the hazy image of a house and barn still was. At least she could make out two distinct shapes and they appeared solid enough.

Her shuffle-step continued even though every breath felt like sandpaper being forced down her throat. Her eyes struggled to focus and blinking became a chore since even the moisture around her eyes had long since dried up. _Almost there…. _

The rumble of a tractor or some other farm vehicle reached her ears, and Violet gasped with relief, eyes burning with desperate tears her body couldn't afford to lose.

"Hello!" She couldn't even hear her own voice and decided against it. Trying to speak hurt too much in any case.

Cool, green grass appeared underfoot as she moved from the dirt road. The shock of it nearly drove her to her knees. She pressed on. Shade from a large tree dotted with white blossoms fell over her and she very nearly collapsed from the sheer relief of it. But she pressed on.

The roar of an engine grew louder and louder. She rounded the corner of the large barn, the big house that looked like something from a fairy-tale stood behind it and to the right.

A man? Yes. A man stood next to a rumbling tractor, his head stuck beneath its hood.

"Hello?" But again, dust filtering through a ray of sun made more noise than the soft exhale her attempt at speech wrought.

The man, though... his back stiffened as if he heard her. More likely, he sensed her presence.

_Good enough, _she thought with a delirious smile that made her dry lips crack and bleed. Without acknowledgement, her body gave out and she collapsed in a dusty heap just before the man swung around into a crouch, a gun trained on her shape.

* * *

"-just appeared out of nowhere! Laura, I swear, I had nothing to do with this." A male voice seeped into the stream of fog that hung over Violet's brain.

Slowly but surely her previous awakening came back to her and feeling the softness of a matrass beneath her and the cool, damp cloth on her forehead, she concluded that she was in a decidedly better position than she was before.

"Of course I ran tests. She's human. Do you really think I'd bring her inside, endanger you and the kids, if I wasn't sure? I couldn't just leave her – look at her and tell me you'd leave her outside."

A ticked off tsked in response and soft, cool fingers fussing over her face told Violet that the man had proven his point to be a valid one. "You're right, love. Doesn't mean I'm not still worried. Who is she? And where did she come from?" The new voice, gentle and female, whispered close to Violet's head and she connected the hands with it.

"I've already sent in her prints and a photo. They'll let me know if anything pops up. But she's pretty badly burnt. I don't know if facial recognition is going to be all that useful."

Violet didn't like to think of herself as being vain, but that last comment lanced through the cobwebs and her muscles clenched.

"Hush, Clint! You're upsetting her," the woman scolded the man, Clint.

Violet clenched her fists and curled her toes and tried, with all her might, just to open her damn eyes! Light, soft and warm and yellow, filtered through.

A hazy blob in the vague shape of a face with kind eyes and a golden halo of hair appeared in her line of sight. A smile. "Hi, honey. Don't worry, it's not bad, you're fine. Just a bit of a sunburn. You'll be lovely and tan when this all blows over. Just relax," the woman, Laura, cooed like she would at a small child or a hurt animal. A mom, Violet decided. Laura had 'mother' written all over her.

The cloth on her forehead was replaced with another and Violet took a second to take stock of her limbs and appendages. Everything throbbed and hurt but seemed to be where they should. She blinked rapidly, trying to get a clearer image, but her eyes felt crusty and drier than her parched mouth.

As if reading her mind, Laura wiped her eyes with another cool cloth and then prodded her lips with a straw. "Some water. Just water, I promise." Honestly, Violet didn't think she would resist even if Laura outright told her that the cup contained some drug. She gratefully gulped down the cool liquid. Glorious!

A buzz sounded from the other side of the room and her eyes darted to the man. He was shorter than he sounded, with close cropped hair and a muscular build. He had kind eyes, though, just like Laura. Husband and wife?

He flicked open a phone and turned to the side so that she couldn't see his lips, but that he could still keep an eye on her. "Yip," he barked at whatever had been said. He looked serious, nodded, and ended the call with a beep.

Laura looked at him inquisitively, guessing or knowing what the phone call had been about.

Herself, _me_, Violet assumed.

Clint shook his head and studied her in turn. "Who are you?" he asked, direct and to the point.

"Vi… Violet," she rasped. "Parr." Two words and they left her panting, gasping for breath.

Clint entered something into his phone, not once taking his eyes off her.

"Where are you from, Violet?" Laura asked, smoothing Violet's hair back and offering her another cup of water.

"Metroville."

Laura looked startled, her head swivelling around to catch Clint's eyes. Something about the cool mask that he maintained screamed professional law enforcement of some kind. Violet was sure that he must work for the government or some agency. He looked as if he would be good at keeping secrets.

His wife, though, not so much. "Metroville? Sweetie, there's no such place," Laura looked concerned. "Are you sure?"

It took a few seconds for Laura's words to really hit home. And when the possibility of it all, the fact that Metroville didn't exist and the simple wrongness that vibrated in the air, finally sunk in, Violet's lungs felt about the size of raisins.

"Mr. Incredible? Elastigirl?" The final test. If those names meant nothing… Elastigirl was incredibly popular in Japan and Korea, and Mr. Incredible had been in the top five supers since the chart had begun… If those names meant nothing, Violet could only imagine that she had landed in some other dimension. Her brain supplied all of this quite rationally – when you eliminate the possible and all that - whereas her heart was beating a mile a minute and black dots danced in front of her eyes.

"I'm sorry, honey, but we don't know who these people are. Are they comic book characters? Do you mean like the Avengers?"

"Who?" Violet asked distractedly. A more pressing problem had suddenly registered. Dash… Jack-Jack…. "Where are my brothers?"

"Shit!" Clint swore and furiously tapped some more buttons on his phone. "More of you?"

Laura glared at him, before returning her gaze to Violet's. "How many brothers? What are their names?"

"Dashiel… Dash and Jack-Jack. Two. Fourteen and nine. Have you seen them? They can't be far." Violet struggled to sit up.

The thin sheet covering her scratched against her tender skin. She was red and blistered, skin missing and peeling in some places. Violet winced at the feeling and sight of it, wishing not for the first time that she had either her dad or brother's healing factor.

Laura gently pressed her back down. "Clint has some very smart friends. He'll find them, I promise. But you need to rest. Have some more water." The straw appeared in front of her lips, and Violet gulped it down, not thinking twice about the slightly sweeter taste. Not until shadows started creeping from the corners of her vision.

"I promise, just something to help you sleep and to ease the pain. Everything will be better tomorrow," Laura soothed.

In the background, Violet could hear angry chattering, children laughing and a bird that seemed stuck on three simple notes in a loop.

High, low, low. High, low, low. High, low, low.

* * *

Coffee.

Nicholas Fury led a very complex life. It came with the territory of being a master spy, a fugitive, an assassin, and who knows what else. And because he lived such a complex life, Nick thought it only right that he indulged in the simple things in life.

So, coffee. There was nothing better than that first waft of freshly ground coffee beans as one enters a coffeeshop. Fury had many cafes and coffeeshops that he liked, but very few that he could return to without forming a habit or creating a trail that could lead his capture. He was human too, though, and he had a favourite.

It was small, kitsch, and the food was mediocre at best. But the coffee! He would sell his black as sin soul for an endless supply. '_Oops!'_ was also very much out of the way of his normal routine of doing nothing the same way twice, and it had been exactly thirty-seven days since his last visit. He knew where the milk was from, where the beans were harvested and roasted. He knew that the machine was cleaned daily and that the café had never had any complaints regarding cleanliness. The coffee was worth the risk.

The bell above the door dinged cheerfully and neither of the two customers already inside looked up. Neither did the barista. She was some college kid with permanent shadows underneath her eyes and deserved a much better paying job with her phenomenal coffee-making skills, but Fury was always secretly glad to see her face.

She was chewing on a sorry looking thumbnail but as soon as his shadow fell over the till, her pale green eyes darted up at his face. A smile quirked and she set to work. Thirty seconds later, his coffee was ready, and he left the ten dollar note next to the till. He inhaled the aroma, took a delicate sip, dismissed the old man flipping through the newspaper that sat at a booth table and walked over to the young man in the corner.

His blond hair stood up in every direction and he nervously bounced his leg. A stack of all-you-can-eat waffles sat in front of him, drenched in syrup and chocolate and sprinkles. The young man or rather, boy, stared out of the window in between stuffing waffles into his mouth.

The cook, a sleazy British fellow, entered through the revolving door, slammed another portion of waffles on the table, picked up a stack of dishes and disappeared once more into the kitchen as Fury meandered his way over to the boy. Clearly, the boy had taken the all-you-can-eat sign as a challenge.

Fury didn't usually amble or meander. He usually stalked with purpose. However, he was stalling, trying to figure out what exactly intrigued him about the boy. What exactly had caught his attention in the first place?

Aside from the fact that the boy was wearing a blue t-shirt several sizes too big, khaki shorts with holes in them and sneakers that were worth at least a few thousand dollars… There! The knee bounced and blurred, just a little too fast for the eye to follow and more than a little too fast that was humanly possible.

"Would you like some company?" Fury didn't wait for an answer but simply slid into the booth opposite to the boy. He was prepared for quite a number of reactions. Surprise, shock… Try to bolt, throw a waffle… Choke, draw a gun… However, he was not prepared for the reaction he received.

The boy, with wide blue eyes and a mischievous mouth, started and melted into a picture of absolute relief. "Oh, thank you!" He raised his eyes to the heavens and cheersed the ceiling with a stack of waffles impaled on his fork. Syrup dripped onto the plastic table. "I have never been so happy to see you," the boy smiled and stuffed the aforementioned fork in his mouth.

"Uncle Lucius, where is everyone? I can't find Metroville. The maps are weird. Mom and Dad don't even exist…. Wait a second." The boy, chewing thoughtfully yet with his mouth wide open, frowned at him. Or to be more exact, frowned at his eyepatch. "Uncle Lucius? What happened to your eye? Are you cosplaying? Undercover? No, wait! You're not…."

Fury's darted out, catching the boy's wrist. For a few seconds, the naked trust he'd seen in the boy's eyes had clawed open some old wounds. Some part of him knew it was foolish, but he couldn't not help this boy. The heartbeat he felt, a thrumming vibration against his fingers, confirmed his suspicions. Speed-related abilities if he was not mistaken.

"Stop. Don't be afraid, son," Fury tried to sound reassuring. He hadn't worked with kids in so long. "I think I can help you."


	3. Chapter 3

A week crawled passed, with Laura spending every possible moment slathering Violet's skin with an aloe-smelling concoction and Clint interrogating her without even trying to be subtle.

He clearly didn't see her as a threat since he introduced her to his son and daughter, but she was a mystery to be solved. He didn't strike Violet as a man who liked secrets. Ironic since the secret agent vibe became stronger with each passing day.

The family had little to no contact with the outside world. No computers, no visitors. Clint had a phone and so did Laura, and the TV was Violet's only source of information concerning the outside.

It didn't take her long to determine that she most definitely no longer resided in her own world. The issues such as war and crime and natural disasters remained the same, but the people were quite different. Some presidents overlapped with her own world, though, which strengthened her parallel dimension theory.

She broke this to Clint on her fifth day, and he nodded solemnly as if he'd suspected. He probably had. He mumbled something about a banner and a spark, but she couldn't make out anything else. He did promise her to find out anything he could about other anomalies that could indicate her brothers had come along, as well as to help her find a way back. Clint said it with such sincerity that she could not help but believe him, even though he spent most of his time just being a dad and fixing up the house.

Until day eight. Until his phone rang.

He carried the thing with him everywhere and from the way everyone, even the kids, tensed each time it beeped, vibrated or rung, Violet assumed that it rarely brought good news. From the look on Clint's face as he listened to the voice on the other side, she wasn't too sure about the news being entirely bad though. He looked both nervous, relieved and terrified. He flipped the phone shut and Laura was already next to him, touching his arm, soothing and inquisitive.

"They found Loki's staff. We're going to go get the damn thing." He sounded almost feral, as if he and the staff had some personal feud going on.

"Will it be dangerous?" Laura asked, her voice small. Clint kissed her in response, meaning she very likely already knew the answer.

"I'll be fine, honey. The others always take the heavy fire." His lips twitched up into a smile, but it didn't quite stick.

Why they were suddenly talking about what Clint did for a living so openly, Violet didn't understand, but she tiptoed out of the room. As crazy as the idea was, she considered stowing away in Clint's vehicle.

True, she wanted to get away and try to find an answer to her problems on her own. Yes, she wanted to look for her brothers. But she also wanted to watch Clint's back.

Knowing how worried she always was when her mom and dad went on missions to save the world or stop bad guys, if Clint's job was anything like that, Laura must live in a constant state of terror. He was just a normal man as far as she could tell, and Cooper, Lila and the yet to be born baby deserved a daddy. She owed it to Clint, and she owed it to them. And he was too nice and kind and gentle to be working for the bad guys, right?

"Where are you going?" Laura asked, just before Violet disappeared from earshot.

"Sokovia," came the reply.

When she saw Clint again, he was decked out in leather with a bow slung over one shoulder. She winced. Please don't let that be his only weapon. Maybe he had laser vision? Or he'd better at least be freaking bulletproof.

"I'll be back in a few days. Don't worry, listen to Laura, and I'll talk to some people who are much smarter than me about the dimension stuff. Hopefully, when I get back, I'll have an answer for you." He gave Violet's shoulder a squeeze before turning to give his family a proper good-bye, hugging and kissing his wife and kids.

Violet murmured something about going to the bathroom and snuck away. Two more reasons were added to her list of why she should follow Clint. One, she was going stir-crazy, and two, if he was going to see people who could have possible answers as to how to get her home, then she sure as heck was having a talk with them too. She had some truly convincing reasons in her arsenal for why she should be wherever he was going but one major reason against: no special suit.

Invisibility didn't drain her energy as much as it used to, and she could spend hours remaining invisible. However, she would have to do so in the nude. Edna's special material was keyed to Violet's genetic make-up or brainwaves or something. Her powers weren't to do with light manipulation as they'd initially thought, which sucked and severely limited the extent to which she could develop her ability. Endurance and completeness were the only two areas she could strengthen and improve.

With a sigh and a small groan, she willed herself invisible, shivered from in the slight tingly feeling, and stripped. She only hoped that her brothers, wherever they were, found themselves in less compromising situations and appreciated the sacrifices she made for them.

Following Clint out wasn't as easy as one would think. Over the past week, Violet had discovered that he was pretty much deaf but had an uncanny sixth sense about him that more than made up for whatever disadvantage the deafness could have meant for most other people. The slight breeze outside in the rapidly cooling night air also didn't help, acting as a reminder of her state of undress.

Violet thought that he would sense her awkwardness and call her out, but besides frowning over his shoulder ever so often, he marched straight to the massive black jet that had suddenly materialised above one of the fields. She rushed to keep up with his purposeful strides, hoping that the low hum of the jet's engines would be enough to help her presence remain undetected.

A woman with flaming red hair sat at the controls and she spun around with a grin. "Good to see you haven't wasted away from boredom," she said with a grin, half-standing out of her seat for a quick hug.

"Hey! Family life suits me fine, Nat. And Laura sends her love." Clint and the woman were clearly close. His face remained open and welcoming as he took the passenger seat. "Where are we picking up the others?" Clint asked as Violet made herself as comfortable as possible near a jeep secured in the left wing.

"We're picking up the others at the tower, and Thor's meeting us there at a rendezvous point. It should be a pretty straightforward mission, what with us having the element of surprise and all hands on deck." The woman, Nat, flicked some switches and the jet rose smoothly, before shooting off with barely a hitch in motion. The pair was quiet for the rest of the ride which left Violet to stew in her own thoughts and worries.

Hopefully, it was only a few more people that they had to pick up because otherwise, she was inadvertently going to bump into someone. She did spot some suits or body armour packed into a rack against a wall, so she had the option of changing into some clothes when it came to that. Barely half an hour later, the plane slowed, landed and the hatch opened. A gust of wind blew into the jet and Violet automatically squeezed her eyes shut to keep the dust out. Upon reopening them, three men had entered the plane.

They were… interesting. Kind of motley looking standing next to each other, but it takes all sorts, right? One man with blonde hair was dressed in imitation of the American flag and carried a shield. He was tall, muscular and carried himself with an air of confidence. He had leadership written all over him, and she got some serious straight-laced vibes. As the eldest, Violet tended to be the mature, responsible one and was a stickler for the rules. She felt a certain kinship with the man for this reason. He also carried a round shield, which appeared to be his only equipment. What was it with these people and medieval weaponry?

The man next to Shield Guy seemed even less equipped for a potentially hostile environment since he wore a high-end suit. Perhaps the briefcase contained his weapons, or he was an extremely powerful super and way too blasé about it. At first glance, she didn't like him. His walk was too cocky, as if he owned the world. At second glance, she didn't really like him any better.

The third guy she barely noticed. He stood hunched and hung back, walking in behind the others. His purple shirt was the thing that made her take notice because it stood out against the grey interior of the jet. The man within the shirt, however, had so little presence that her eyes would likely skip right over him in a crowd. That made her nervous. In this trade, not being noticed was a weapon wielded by only the deadliest. Heroes tended to be loud and noticeable in order to attract the attention of villains and keep the attention away from civilians. '_Heroes'_ that kept under the radar tended to have bloody pasts.

"Yo!" Suit Guy announced his presence and draped himself over one of the chairs. The other two hung back. "Are we ready for this? Let's go! I'm itching to try out some of my new toys – they'll be following along. Katniss, my man! You must be excited to finally get this one done and dusted, aye?"

Clint looked as if he considered just ignoring the guy but opted for being civil. "Stark," he acknowledged the man with a curt nod, before making eye contact with the other two. "Evening, Captain, Doctor. Good to see you again."

"You too, Clint." Captain Shield replied with a smile. "Hi, Nat. I like your hair."

"Thanks, Steve. I'm glad to see you're still sane after having to spend so much time with Tony." Nat shot a teasing smile over her shoulder at Captain Steve and Stark/Tony, before reserving a softened look for the last guy, the doctor. "Hello, Bruce. You look well."

"Y-You too, Natasha. Good to see you guys," Bruce replied awkwardly, stuttering under the scrutiny. Violet cocked a brow at that. Maybe he was a genuine wallflower rather than her first judgement as an assassin. Yeah, this guy was blushing at a greeting. Definitely not killer material.

With barely a hum or a bump, the plane took off once more. She thought that because 'Sokovia' had a distinctly North Asian feel to it, Violet estimated the flight would take perhaps nine torturous hours. Luckily, it was closer to two hours since any more of Tony's techno-babble was going to drive her insane. Her limbs were barely even stiff when the plan started descending through a sheet of snow.

She allowed herself a second to marvel at the technology and to miss her mom, who would have loved to get her hands on something like this jet, before scooting out of the truck and out of the way of a rapidly approaching Clint. "Captain, your bike is underneath the tarp over there," Clint nodded at a brown shape next to the truck.

Steve subsequently went over to it, removing it's cover and checking over the motorcycle. "You all have your communicators, right?" He asked, absentmindedly. Everyone hummed affirmatives. "Well, I guess we're just waiting for Thor then."

As if to punctuate the sentiment a flash of lightning lit up the sky, and a crash of thunder rumbled so loudly it shook the jet. Turbulence rocked the plane, and Nat clenched the controls tighter. "Show off," she said through clenched teeth.

"That's everyone, then!" Stark announced exuberantly with a grin. "Let's get this party started!"

Violet frowned, thoroughly confused.


End file.
